Martin Luther King Jr. was not just a dreamer, but a dissenter who jolted the powerful.

The third Monday in January is an incredibly important holiday for our nation, not only because we take this time to celebrate the life and vision of Rev. Dr. Martin Luther King, Jr., but because we take notice of those who use this day as an opportunity to temper and mischaracterize the man and his efforts.

There are those who celebrate a false Dr. King, a straw man, their own representation of the so-called “peaceful protest.” They may recall the words, but neither the meaning nor the context. They remember the dream, but not the fight to make that dream a reality. Not the fact that those dreams were often born inside a jail cell. Dr. King was a righteous agitator, a revolutionary. Dr. Martin Luther King Jr. was one of the leaders of the Resistance.

Leadership through dissent can be an instrument of profound, lasting change, as Dr. King has proven. Those who exercise this kind of leadership today are often met with derision, dismissal, and outright anger. This is nothing new; it has always been this way. If your protest does not upset people, if you are not met with opposition, you may not be fighting for the impact you need. Disruption of the norm is an essential part of protest, and of course in Dr. King’s time there were a great many people who fought to preserve that norm. But in the current climate it seems that for some, no method of protest is legitimate, and by extension, no cause for protest is.

City Councilman Jumaane D. Williams (rt.).

We are less than a week from the anniversary of the inauguration of Donald Trump. Alongside other activists, I was arrested outside Trump Tower almost immediately after the ceremony for protesting the hatred that the man who lived there had brought, and has continued to bring, upon this country. There were those who thought this act of protest was inappropriate, was too brazen, was ill-timed. They argued that there would be a time and a place to oppose Trump, but this was neither.

Immediately after that historically dark day for our nation came another landmark day in our history, one of hope. Millions of people, led by bold, unrelenting women, marched in cities, towns, and villages across the country and the world in opposition to hate and in advocacy of the causes they believed in. Joining that inspirational movement, one which has sustained across the last year of Trump, is one of my proudest moments of protest. The Women’s March was the single largest act of protest in modern American history. But even as millions raised their voices with a unified message of equality, we faced intense opposition that began in the Oval Office and permeated the country. The protests were called obscene, unnecessary, disrespectful.

Just last week, the power of protest, and the incessant will of some to deter it, was again displayed as a large group of protesters, myself among them, came together to oppose the immoral detention and pending deportation of Ravi Ragbir, a man who has dedicated his life to pursuing justice for others. I, along with my fellow Council Member Ydanis Rodriguez and 16 others were arrested and detained by police for our acts of protest. I do not intend for our experience to elicit pity or outrage on our own behalf, but rather for the cause for which we protested. Dr. King understood that for protesters, our arrest, our detention, is but an inconvenience when compared to the injustices against which we protest. I got out. Ravi didn’t.

Immigration right activist Ravi Ragbir (c.) was detained at a protest outside the Javits Center in Manhattan last week.

(Mark Lennihan/AP)

This was not an instance where one could credibly argue, as detractors of protest often do, that that there would be a better time or place to express our dissent. The time was then, and the place was there. The need was imminent, and the result immediate. It is up to those who possess the privilege to protest that they do so for those who cannot. Passionate voices have a moral obligation to act. Stand up, and the world will take notice. Yell, and the world will listen. Question, and compel the world to answer. Protest, by design, raises uncomfortable questions, and unbelievable reactions.

Perhaps the most vitriolic reaction to recent protest stems from a simple, reverent gesture- kneeling during the playing of our national anthem at sporting events. This movement began with Colin Kaepernick, and for his silent, simple action he lost his job and faced untold hatred across America from those who believe he had disrespected our flag, our military, our country itself. Again, the President of the United States vocally and vulgarly led this attack. As athletes and leaders, including many of my colleagues in the City Council, took a knee alongside Kaepernick in solidarity and in protest of the same injustice he called attention to, those in opposition again stipulated that there was a time, a place, and a manner of protest that would be sufficient, effective, accepted.

Colin Kaepernick has lost his job as an NFL quarterback for simply taking a knee during the national anthem at games.

(Slaven Vlasic/(Credit too long, see caption))

Most of those opposed to these acts of protest would not openly express these same sentiments about Dr. King. Rather, they would present the Reverend and the movement he led as the standard for a “peaceful protest” that they could support. They conveniently forget the fire hoses and the church burnings, the arrests and the assassination, that those protesters confronted with steadfast courage. They forget that Dr. King was the master of disruption and dissent, of civil disobedience. That civil disobedience is, to me, one of the most patriotic actions that a citizen can take, and my deep admiration for Dr. King is rooted in the strength and conviction that he exercised to make change. They willfully sanitize the legacy of Dr. King and those who he fought alongside in order to create an image with which they are more comfortable. The perverse co-opting of his legacy by some to discourage dissent is abhorrent.

The reality for these airbrushed historians, whether they can admit it to others or even themselves, is that they oppose protest itself because they oppose the change it brings to the status quo. If Dr. King marched today, they would have opposed him, and the movement he helped to lead, and had they held their positions of power during the height of the Civil Rights Movement, it seems clear that they would move to restrict it. Today, though, they choose to elevate a false Dr. King, one within the scope of their own agenda, one whose message they can control and rewrite. Dr. King understood six decades ago what the Resistance is now bringing to bear — change comes because of the combined forces of those on the streets of the city and in the halls of government. Protest, disruption, is not an act intended for peaceful acquiescence, but rather a catalyst for monumental change. He knew that he had to bring together the sheer power of dedicated, nonviolent protest with the intricacies of political maneuvering in order to affect revolutionary progress. Decades from now, today’s actions of dissent around the country by the Resistance will be recognized for what they are, igniting progress in a time where even preservation of past gains seemed tenuous, and advancement seemed impossible. As we live our history, however, we are best served by ignoring those who purposely distort and misunderstand the lessons of Dr. King, instead listening to his owns words for our inspiration and drive.

“If you can't fly, then run, if you can't run, then walk, if you can't walk, then crawl, but whatever you do you have to keep moving forward.”

Against those who threaten to pull our country backward, let us move forward, in protest, in resistance, and in progress.